Do you understand this video? Or, is your first question: “how come he can pet and play with lions and others can't”?Let us compare Kevin's interaction with that of a cub petting facility.Every month, hundreds of fee-paying visitors will touch, play with and have their photograph taken, with a cute lion cub. Either at a lion farm posing as a sanctuary, or at a tourist resort that rents cubs from lion farmers. How does this affect that cub? 1. It suffers extreme stress. 2. Because of the oils in human hands the cub can lose hair. 3. Stress brings on vomiting. 4. The cub gets diarrhea from the constant handling 5. The cub is beaten into submission so that it does not scratch or bite. 6. The cub then goes back to the breeder who will in due course sell it to a hunter who will shoot it with arrows or bullets. 7. The sad end result for the cub will be a very painful death. None of this applies to Kevin Richardson. His love for lions has altered his life and he has built a sanctuary for the lions he has rescued. He now spends his life educating people about the atrocities of canned lion hunting. So how come he can pet and play with lions? 1. He rescued these lions, and it is their choice whether they want to interact with him or not. 2. He bought land on which to build a quality of life for these animals. 3. He will give these animals life long care. They can never be released into the wild. 4. These animals will never be sold. 5. These animals will never be shot. 6. These animals will live their lives in comfort and safety. Kevin does not pretend that caring for his small pride has anything to do with conservation. He has rescued these lions from the canned hunting industry and he has taken responsibility for their contentment and lifetime care. In short he is a ‘giver’. Volunteers who work at lion farms and cub petting tourists take no responsibilty for the fate of the lion cubs. They take a short, stressful interaction with the cub for their own selfish purposes and then they leave, abandoning the cub to a miserable life and a cruel death. In short they are NOT ‘givers’ they are ‘takers’. As a self-taught animal behaviorist, Kevin has broken every safety rule known to humans when working with these wild animals. Flouting common misconceptions that breaking an animal’s spirit with sticks and chains is the best way to subdue them, he uses love, understanding and trust to develop personal bonds with them. His unique method of getting to know their individual personalities, what makes each of them angry, happy, upset, or irritated – just like a mother understands a child – has caused them to accept him like one of their own into their fold. The many lion documentaries that Kevin has featured in have made him famous. For more information visit his website : http://www.lionwhisperer.co.za/

We also need to give thought to the fact that these poor cubs are yearning for their mothers from whom they have been taken. They are therefore already under extreme stress before they even have to deal with the number of thoughtless humans who maul them. Try to imagine what it would be like to be handled constantly every day by people who had absolutely no understanding of your being but were merely concerned with self-gratification.

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Max

4/3/2014 05:24:40 am

Are you saying volunteering in general is bad or do you mean the volunteers that stay for only 2-4 weeks? I personaly thought about going to South-Africa to volunteer (if possible) for about half a year.
How do you think about that?

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cannedlion

4/3/2014 09:51:37 pm

Max just avoid any place that offers cub rearing. ie stay away from any captive breeder passing himself off as a wildlife sanctuary to get your money.
How long you stay is up to you. Rather go to an ethical place like Kevin Richardson's Kingdom, Lions Rock, Drakenstein or Jukani, and there are others.

Volunteering could never be bad no matter you're volunteering for and no they're absolutely not saying volunteering is bad, that's silly.

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Lasne

4/18/2014 10:22:28 pm

I am ethologist and specialized in communication for ethical causes, and animal protection. So, if I can help you by this way, for example, creating some impacting advertising poster against canned hunting, I would be happy to bring like this my stone for lions' protection and wellbeing.

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AMG Heupink

3/23/2018 04:07:34 pm

I totally understand. It's a symbiotic life, with absolute trust, respect and affection. It's something most dogowners even can't accomplish with their dogs. Or couples can only dream about during marriadges of 40 yrs and more. It's about being an animal with the animals without losing your humanity. I absolutely admire him and his partner for their dedication. I won't go to any zoo, sea-aquarium or canned-farm. I'm totally aware of the living soul that piece of meat on my plate comes from. Just be aware of what you're doing. Nobody "needs" to cuddle or bottle-feed cubs. Neighter do the cubs.

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Tanja

3/24/2018 12:59:08 am

"Kevin does not pretend that caring for his small pride has anything to do with conservation."

^Reckon he doesn't have to, because his blinded followers are making up those excuses for him.

OYD.. You must be legally stupid. Just as the writer of that text you posted here. NO one in the right mind would ever think any lion would never kill a human. Whether they are part of his pride or at BJWT. They always stay wild animals. As a tourist you should stay in the safety zone. And mostly that's the car. A 20-yr old should have more sense then getting out of the vehicle AND getting outside the camp ! Remember ? Tourists got killed by elephants in Zambia, late november. Outside their camp. "They only wanted to shoot some pictures".. As if the elephant "responsible" for the deaths had any knowledge of that. And ofcourse, that stupid American woman who got mauled by the lion through her open carwindow should have known better too then to try and eat humans, didn't it ?

Really ? Do you really think people tend to think that KR's lions don't maul humans ? IfI where you I'd watch some of the vids where he guides tourists and ALWAYS warns them to STAY in the car AND pulls up a safety fence.

Kevin's interactions with lions may be ethical in the sense that his lions are well cared-for. However, if he was really that concerned with the fate of other lions that are trapped in the canned hunting/cub-petting industry, he would stop publicising his interactions with his lions. He would stop using his lions for advertising campaigns, stop inviting media of any kind to his sanctuary, and even prevent volunteers from posting photos of him and his lions on social media. Going back to the question posed at the top of this page (how come he can play with lions and others can't?) - for most people the answer is - I want to play with lions just like he does! That helps drive the cub-petting industry - in effect, providing them with free advertising.

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AMG

3/25/2018 04:43:37 pm

OYD.. Some mothers really do have them.. Do your homework, for once.. Then you would learn that the canned hunting industry already was there WAY before he was even thinking about working. He would have been about 7 yrs old. Remember the movie, "roar"? 1981. Look it up. It's your chance of a lifetime to finally at least pretend you're an intelligent person and get away with it.

He doesn't have to prove anything to anyone. The FACT his lions are still alive and healthy says it all. You want to pet some lions ? Fine. Just say so. Admit you're jealous and be selfish. Just don't blame it on him. And least of all the lion.

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JB

5/14/2018 08:51:07 am

To put the blame on Kevin for people not being able to refrain/contain their shallowness is really a stupid argument if there ever was one...
With your stupid reasoning, let's ban porn because it might turn men horny and they might want to rape somebody...

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Jayden

5/14/2018 08:03:32 am

Kevin uses his interactions with the lions to bring awareness to canned hunting and cub petting. People go to his channel to see the amazing relationship he has with his animals, but end up learning a lot about the animal exploitation going on in South Africa and the rest of the world. I didn't even know that canned hunting existed until I watched one of his videos.

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Joyce

5/14/2018 08:55:54 am

I must admit I am totally jealous of Kevin loving and petting his lions as I have loved the cat kingdom since I was old enough to have a house kitty and have rescued many and fed hungry animals , but would I pay to pet a cub ,definitely NOT it’s a terrible trade. People who breed animals for petting and canned hunting are!!!G horrible , but i doubt that anyone can stop them as it all abut the money , money , money

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Alana

5/23/2018 12:36:56 pm

Jayden said it perfectly - he uses respectful relationships and stunning videos to educate people. Canned hunting; habitat; population decline; enrichment; the complicated mess of it all - he pulls no punches and shares the heart breaking and frustrating as well as the "awwww". The sanctuary costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to operate and has to be paid for somehow. From what I've seen, he will not proceed with fund raising ventures if the animals are stressed or "not into it today" for any photo op or program. It's easy to see the respect he has for the animals and the trust they have in him - none of it coming from authority but from mutual respect. I have learned more from his channel than any other Youtube channel I follow.